4 out of 5

The core of this arc – issues 20 to 23 – are amazing.  They’re everything that swept me up in Copra as I glanced through the initial collections at Bergen Street comics: this energizing mixture of meticulously planned action (Fiffe’s layouts are always something to behold, these fully realized spaces that he then shifts us through with amazing paneling and framing) and fly-on-the-wall conversations that, by not trying so hard to ‘humanize’ these Suicide Squad variants, end up making them radically human after all.  Fiffe often splices moments together, dropping us into it after the point of a “Meanwhile…” or “Later…” which can sometimes be jarring but once you’re on board makes sense, because the balancing act of The Fantastic and The Realistic that can elevate spandex-clad books into a thinking man’s action fable admittedly, in my opinion, requires some distraction to keep us from thinking about some things too much.  Certainly some writers have taken the tact of going all in in one direction over the other, but in good examples of both – take a pick of classic Golden / Silver Age stuff for the former (or, as a more modern take, Morrison’s JLA), or the granddaddy of “adult” books Watchmen for the latter – there’s still a dash of cheekiness right beneath the surface.  Take that away and you run the risk of the book becoming the cheesy schmaltz that most non-comic readers assume we’re all reading anyway.  (Skip some narrative here about how that is true for a ton of books, as well as how the landscape has shifted somewhat with the seeming growing embrasure of geek culture.)

Act Four introduces some more team members, shuffles us through Sonia’s attempts to recruit even more Copra members, moves the Lloyd / Boomer narrative along, and gives us another edge-of-your-seat view of a mission-gone-wrong.  Issues 20 to 23 flow together pretty seamlessly, with the Act bookended by summaries from Flo, the team’s traffic officer, or Oracle, or control officer, or whatever we call her in the Copra world.  These issues aren’t bad by any means, and do help to set things up for those of us who may forget details and character names (since there’s a tonnnn of stuff going on in this series), but it offsets the momentum a tad and gets a bit too “human,” which is something that made the last Act and Fiffe’s second Ultimates arc a little bumpy as well.  It’s not that Michel can’t write these things well, or that the characters don’t deserve the focus (and Flo is human, after all – no special suit or powers), the issues just feel wholly separated from everything else, even as we’re narrated to atop of scenes that feature the other characters.  Again, it’s the blend.  Issue 20’s Boomer-led tale works because his thoughts keep bouncing around between external things and what’s going on in the panels; issue 22’s brief conversation between Sonia and Copra security guy (? I guess… this is a character I’ve lost track of) Murph does the same, but something about Flo’s wrap-up of her life in issue 24 leans toward indulgence, even if some great overall story elements end up being revealed therein.

It’s not that Fiffe shouldn’t write these “pause” issues (the first bundle of Ultimates issues were awash with them, and though it was a little weird it was also really unique and fun), I just think there’s still some work to be done with smoothing the transition between those moments and the NonStopRush issues.  That being said, the transition did work much better for me here than it did in the single shot Act Three books, so it certainly does appear that our creator is evolving on all levels.

Long “I live in a basement and don’t produce comics but here’s my criticism” over, Copra remains one of the few books where every few pages makes me want to get up and write Fiffe something to tell him how amazing he is… except I get distracted by something even more amazing on the next page.  The core of this act escalated that experience to a fever pitch, so now I’m spoiled for choice in choosing something to enthuse over.  Poor me.